Where the Gum Drops Led Us
by Onigami Nanashi
Summary: First chapter in a series of drabbles from Greg's PoV. NickGreg. Spoilers for Gum Drop. Fluff. You have been warned. Rating to be safe, and because I don't understand these letterthings that we're supposed to use...


Author's Notes: This is from Greg's PoV. I'm not sure who he's talking to yet, but I'm leaning towards Papa Olaf. And again, I'm not sure if it's on the phone, or to a gravestone or what, but like I said I'm not done yet. This is the first chapter of who knows what. Feedback is devoutly wished for!

I think Nick would have broken if we hadn't found Cassie. He was so involved in that case, it hit so close home for him that if we hadn't found her, he would have broken and none of us can know where he would have gone then. He was thinking about leaving, did you know? He didn't think he could do it anymore. But then he found Cassie and she gave him that card. He cried for hours about that card when we got home. Grissom wanted to keep it for some God forsaken reason about evidence, but Nick flat out refused to give it up. I like to think that Grissom understood, but I don't know about that. I think, realistically, it was because Nick had that look in his eyes. That look that no one really wants to cross. The card's on our mantle now, right in the center. Nick said his shrink thought it symbolized everything that Nick wanted to say about when he was rescued boiled down into a few words that only a child can say. You know he also thought about adopting Cassie? He still is. I'm okay with it, I just don't know how it would work unless one of us left the lab. If adopting Cassie becomes a distinct possibility, I might consider moving back to the lab. I know, becoming a CSI was for the whole point of moving out of the lab, but Nick loves his job so much, that I don't think he could ever stop. For Cassie, though? I don't know. He told me what he talked to Sara about, about Cassie and being rescued and it being his day to die. I don't know how he kept the faith that he did in finding her. As much as I hate to say it, I think the rest of us were looking for a body. But I think that Nick went through the same things that we did when we were looking for him. And now I feel bad about not helping him as much as I could have, because I thought we had time looking for her. I mean, when we were looking for him, we all had each other to be there. He was looking on his own. I gotta go home after this and really talk to him about adopting Cassie. I don't think I've ever seen him want to do something so badly.

We're in temporary custody of her right now. Between her needing to testify for the trial and trying to piece her soul back together, it's been a rough week. A week, I can't believe that's all it's been since we found her and she came here. Sage volunteered to take Cassie, but the drug test disqualified her. That's too bad, really. She seemed like a nice enough person, and Cassie's known her for a while, and I know it would make Nick feel better if, if we didn't take her, someone she knows would. Of course, never mention to Nick that we're complete strangers to her. He spent so much time in her room, in her house, that he forgets that she doesn't know us, as much as we may think we know her. She's pretty quiet most of the time, which worries me sometimes, but I understand mostly. I mean, the poor girl just lost her parents, which can't be easy on her. We took her to Catherine's one day for dinner, and she and Lindsey got along pretty well, but Linds is a bit older, so we weren't expecting too much. Do you know how many people around the lab want to meet her? It's insane. I didn't think there were that many people working at the lab, let alone wanting to meet Cass. Of course, when we tell people that we're thinking of adopting Cassie the response invariably is 'are you sure?' Well, no we're not sure, which is why we're thinking about it. Thinking. I don't know. It doesn't bother me that much, it's just something that made itself really obvious the fourth or fifth time we heard it. Nick thinks it's funny that I fixated on that out of all the possible responses that we could have gotten. Everybody at the lab's been great. I mean, all these people have so much experience with kids, it amazes me. Archie watches his sister's little boy every weekend; Bobby has a little girl of his own, even Hodges for god's sake has a niece and nephew that live just outside Vegas. It's crazy.

We just got word that Cassie's probably going to have to testify, at least some in the trial. Nick almost lost it when they told him. He wants to protect her from anything more than what she's already gone through. It's endearing as hell. He wants to bring in one of the country's best psychiatrists. I didn't misspeak. One of the country's best: Dr. George Huang. He specializes in forensic psychiatry, but Nick knows him through something and wants him here. From New York. Well, if it makes him happy… We painted the guest bedroom, so it's starting to look more and more certain that Cassie's here to stay. For the moment, Nick's on vacation, staying home with her and taking care of the things that need to be taken care of. It's great to come home in the mornings and watch him cook dinner, breakfast, whatever you normal people call it. Ha! I call you normal people. That's amusing. Anyway, it's starting to look like one or both of us is going to move to swing shift. Warrick's got some friend in New York who can come out for night shift and take care of that. Heh. Take care of Warrick more like. I saw the look in his eyes when he was talking about this 'friend'.

Oh, God. Cassie had to testify today. I think it was harder on the two of us than it was on her. She's a strong girl. Stronger than I ever was, especially at that age. Stronger than I am now. Nick's friend came out and did the whole thing. But even with the best people there's no getting around the fact that the whole thing was about the massacre of her family. They let her stay in a back room and close circuit TV-ed the interview between her and Dr. Huang. Her voice still isn't very strong, which was one of the reasons they let her do that. I don't know why they needed her to do it. All they got from her was what they already knew. I think the prosecution just wanted sympathy points from her. Nicky thinks the same, and the DA was very lucky that they got Cassie. Nick was all set to challenge the relevance of her statements and keep her out of court. She finally convinced him that it would be all right. There were tears all around for that one. It ended with the three of us falling asleep on the couch. Nick was sitting near the end with Cassie's head in his lap, her feet in mine. I was asleep on Nick's shoulder, at least until he started crying. He loves that little girl so much. It's not hard to… We talked about what we were going to do and how we'd have to change to do it. I think we know what we're going to do. I'm going back to the lab, on nightshift, and Nick's going to swing. Mia's going to swing shift too, leaving nightshift open. The pay raise won't hurt, and someone will be somewhat coherent for Cassie whenever she may need. I'm going to take some vacation time right now, and Grissom's looking to see if he can get us family time off. We're going to go and see Cassie's grandparents. They wanted her, but there was no way they could take care of her, and they knew it, so I think they just want to screen us.


End file.
